In thermal spray applications, molybdenum carbide has not been conventionally used. However, in combination with pure molybdenum powder, it is used for certain wear resistant applications.
Up to this time, molybdenum-molybdenum carbide is produced by first forming molybdenum carbide and then incorporating it with molybdenum prior to subsequent processing to form spherical flowable agglomerates suitable for plasma spray applications.
It would be desirable to produce such composite powders with a reduced number of processing steps.